Veronica Perretti [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the essential astrocast. I'm your host, Veronica Peretti, and I'm happy to be back with you. I missed you last week. It was a heavy, intense week. So I don't know if you were feeling that way, but a lot of people that I talked to just felt that heaviness and I was feeling it. Full disclosure, I was pmsing and felt horrible all week. And the astrology was just amplifying what was going on in my body hormonally. So if you felt like that and you weren't pmsing, then it's possible that that Mars Square Neptune was to blame.

Veronica Perretti [00:00:36]:
But, you know, this week we're going to have a really beautiful week with some very few transits, but very fortunate transits. So I'm excited to talk about those with you. So while Mercury retrograde did end a few weeks ago, he will finally leave his shadow, which means that we will finally have clarity on what whatever Mercury's been working on in your chart. So when a planet retrogrades, it goes back and forth over the same degrees in your chart three times. Some sandpaper going back and forth, sanding that spot of wood, it's the same thing. It's sanding that spot in your chart and bringing out whatever needs to be brought out. We are working with figuring out what our mercury retrograde story was about, and we're working with some new moon energy. Thankfully, we had a new moon in Virgo last week.

Veronica Perretti [00:01:37]:
So last Monday we had a new moon in Virgo on September 2. That was the last new moon for intention setting until November 1 because we are officially heading into eclipse season. So eclipse season comes twice a year. You know it. You are familiar with it. If you've been with me for a while here on the essential astrocast. And eclipses are just going to be around the corner now. So here's the deal.

Veronica Perretti [00:02:13]:
We have the first quarter moon on Tuesday, September 10. You can still set your intentions. In fact, I'm trying to get this up to you on Monday. So hopefully you will hear this and you will set your intentions for that new moon in Virgo last week. If you haven't done so yet, you can still do it this week. Okay. Anytime before a full moon. Really, you can.

Veronica Perretti [00:02:35]:
But it's optimal to do it in that first week? Most optimal within the first 48 hours. Some would say 24 hours. But my thing with intention setting, you know my motto, you dictate your fate. So when you feel in alignment with what you want to bring in, with what energy you want to operate with that is when you should set intentions. So of course, it's always nice to have a little new moon juju on your side. But if the new moon is not a time where you feel in alignment with intention setting or manifestation work, you don't have to do it at that time. You can manifest, you can set intentions anytime, anywhere. It's about you aligning with your own energy and your own sense of truth.

Veronica Perretti [00:03:27]:
But of course, we're here to talk about astrology and optimizing what you're working with, right? So we are paying attention to the energies and the heavens so that we can prepare ourselves, work with it in an optimal way. If you have not had a chance to set your intention, please go forward and do so. If you're not feeling intention setting right now, no worries. Because the thing about eclipse season is that the magic is in the eclipse. The eclipse itself shows us what's in the shadows. My friend Katherine Urban, she calls eclipses cosmic horse correctors, and I love that because they often are. Sometimes when we're feeling not sure which direction to go, the eclipse will open up a path that we didn't know existed or we hadn't thought about before. We don't necessarily do manifestation work throughout eclipse season because we're in what I like to call the eclipse vortex, where time seems to kind of not exist in the normal way.

Veronica Perretti [00:04:32]:
Things seem to just get a little bit wonky. You know, we start to feel like there's an intensity or there's we're sustainable, suspended in some way. So just pay attention to how you feel over the coming weeks, knowing that eclipse is around the corner. We're going to talk about it more next week because the full moon lunar eclipse in Pisces will be next week. But right now, I want to tell you about last week, since I missed you, and I just want to catch you up, because sometimes astrology is even more powerful when we do it in the reverse, when we reflect. So when we reflect on what was and then we reset for what we want to align our energy with. And last week was a lot of heaviness. It felt really burdensome.

Veronica Perretti [00:05:19]:
There was a real awareness of your responsibilities and a real heaviness around that awareness. And maybe things just felt like too big a lift, too overwhelming to even deal with. And I know that's how I felt. And I know talking to friends and people that I came across, there was a general vibe going on. And that was, of course, partially due to the new moon in Virgo having some influence from Saturn because Saturn was opposite the new moon, but it was also Mars square Neptune. So Mars is that planet that makes us want to go and get stuff done. Neptune is interested in us connecting with spirit, connecting with, being absorbed in the vastness and being able start to understand the ethereal. Therefore, Mars and Neptune, they don't really vibe.

Veronica Perretti [00:06:21]:
They don't really get each other so much. So Mars was at the end of Gemini at the time, squaring Neptune, which is at 29 degrees Pisces. So you may have remembered this refrain. I've said it a few times recently because we had Venus go through that part of your chart. We had Mercury go through that part of your chart earlier this year. So whenever something goes through and has a square or a hard aspect to that, Neptune at 29 degrees, we talk about it, and we talk about Neptune being at this crisis point. Now, technically, I believe Neptune has now made its way back to 28 degrees, but he's still really close to that 29 degrees. And Neptune is finishing up its journey.

Veronica Perretti [00:07:09]:
So it is retrograde. Outer planets being retrograde, no big deal. We don't worry about that. But Neptune talking to those inner planets, those planets like Venus, Mars, Mercury, the sun, the moon, the planets that impact us on a more daily level in our personal lives, when Neptune interacts with them, and he's at the end of Pisces, there's a feeling of a crisis. There's a feeling of being swallowed up. There's a feeling of, like, your head is underwater. And that is what I felt last week. And I'm sure some of you out there felt that way, and maybe some of you didn't.

Veronica Perretti [00:07:50]:
Maybe some of you had this not impacting your chart personally at all. So a lot of the time will have transits that might be really tough for one of us or a few of us. But you might have noticed some heaviness in the collective energy last week. So all of that is to say there was a sense of inertia, of feeling stuck, of helplessness and hopelessness. Luckily, we've shaken that off as we moved away from that transit. And Mars has moved into cancer. So right after Mars moved into cancer. But the thing is, Mars and cancer is really emotional.

Veronica Perretti [00:08:30]:
So Mars and cancer is answering to the moon. So for the next few, quite a few months. Cause Mars is gonna be in cancer for a while. We're all gonna have our motivation and our desire to move forward impacted by the moon. Cause the moon moves signs every two, two and a half days. And Mars in cancer, because cancer is ruled by the moon. Will be answering to that moon. So that is to say that it's a very interesting few months ahead with Mars having a prolonged stay in cancer.

Veronica Perretti [00:09:07]:
The reason I'm taking this time at the beginning of the podcast talk about last week is because some of the things that happened last week are going to be part of our story for the coming months. And you're going to hear me talk about it over and over and over again. So Mars will be in cancer off and on until April 2025. And I know that sounds insane. That sounds like you're like, Veronica, what are you talking about? Because Mars, every two years does his retrograde. And when Mars retrogrades, it's one of the toughest. Mars and Venus are the toughest. They retrograde the least often.

Veronica Perretti [00:09:45]:
So with Mars retrograding, he will retrograde in Leo and make his way back into cancer. So, yeah, 2025, we're going to get more Mars in cancer. So just pay attention to how you feel, because you're going to notice the difference now that Mars shifted from Gemini, where he's, you know, doing all the things, maybe not focused, but likes to be out and about. And now he moves into cancer where he wants to probably stay home a lot more. There's a desire to go inward a lot more. There might be a restlessness of wanting the motivation to do something, but you don't necessarily know where to find it. Now, you're not going to feel that way every day. And as I said, mars is going to be answering to the moon, so things are going to shift, right? So right now, as I'm recording this, the moon is in Sagittarius, so I'm feeling good.

Veronica Perretti [00:10:48]:
You know, moon and SAG is fun. It likes to go out, it likes to have adventures. And I'm a marsy person because I have a lot of Aries in my chart, and Aries is ruled by Mars. So this Mars in cancer is definitely going to be challenging one for me, especially since I'm born with Mars in Aries, where he likes to be, where he's the ruler, he's calling the shots. So Mars and cancer, not so easy for this one. But I, when we have a moon that is a little more fun, we're going to have more fun with that Mars. So just pay attention to that. So much of astrology is just paying attention to how you feel, feeling the energy and then noticing the patterns.

Veronica Perretti [00:11:29]:
So I'll keep reminding you of the patterns. You just pay attention to how you're feeling week to week. And that is one of the reasons that I think keeping a moon journal is really helpful. So if you have a practice of journaling every day or every few days, you just note where the moon is at that time, because you'll find some patterns of when the moon is in sag. I'm a little bit more excited. I want to go out and have fun. I want to go out for a run. I want to go get my errands done.

Veronica Perretti [00:11:59]:
When the moon is in cancer, maybe I'm a little bit more tired. Maybe I want to stay home more. Maybe I just want to be with my closest family, and I'm not interested in being social. So those are some ways that we might see the patterns. So Moon journaling can be helpful for that. The other thing that I wanted to mention that was really important from last week is that we had the third and final Mercury Square Uranus. So you're probably sick of hearing me talk about this, but Mercury Square Uranus, it is the story of this whole election, shift of energy, the Kamala hair, the switch, if we will. I think people in the inside politics are calling it the switch.

Veronica Perretti [00:12:43]:
So when the switch happened, we had the first Mercury square Uranus. Then we had the second, thanks to mercury retrograde, and now we just had the third one. So it's really interesting, because if you are a politics nerd like I am, you know that the story today I woke up on today is I'm recording this on the 9 September. So I woke up today, and the New York Times, the daily episode, which is the podcast that I often listen to, had my coffee. I listened to some news, podcasts, and the Daily was, oh, Kamala Harris honeymoon is over. And I was like, of course, mercury square uranus. The third time Mercury square Uranus is telling the story of the switch. So the first one we had, the switch.

Veronica Perretti [00:13:40]:
The second one we had, oh, gosh, I have to go back in my notes to remember what the second one was. And the third one was Friday the 6th. And guess what? That was the day that some states sent out their mail in ballots. So there really is a story that Mercury Square Uranus is telling about this election. We have to pay attention to it. So now we're finally getting out of this story. The story has been told. We're getting some more clarity.

Veronica Perretti [00:14:13]:
I also think the Mercury square Uranus, the first one was Joe Biden stepping down. That was July 21. The second one was 818. That was right before. That was the eve of the DNC starting. So the democratic national Convention. And then the third one was last Friday, and as I said, that's when the first mail in ballots were sent out. And now we're getting ready for the debate.

Veronica Perretti [00:14:36]:
And of course, the last debate was the one that changed everything. And now we're going into the next one. So if you don't like politics stuff, you can fast forward. I always put it in the show notes, what I talk about. There's little chapters in the episode. Speaking of the podcast, I wanted to mention that I now have transcripts on my new podcast website. So you can head over to essentialastrocast.com, and that is a website just for the podcast. And if you click on the episode, you will see that there's show notes and then there's another tab for transcript.

Veronica Perretti [00:15:16]:
And so once you go into transcript, you can actually read the transcript for the episode, which is not perfect because it is transcribed by AI, but pretty good. And if you ever want to go back and see what I said about something in particular, or you just want to read it, because that's how you learn, you're welcome to go over to essentialastrocast.com, click on the episode, go to transcript. Also, while I'm doing some housekeeping, cosmic conversations are coming back. Zoom chats that I open once a month, and we talk a little astrology, and I'm opening up for Q and A. And it's really a collaborative space where you come and ask your questions and I share whatever I know and can share with you. And then we do a little short meditation and some journaling just to reflect and reset, as I said, just to set our energy as we tune in to the cosmos. So if you want to join me for that, the next one is going to be on Monday, September 16 at 05:00 p.m. eastern time.

Veronica Perretti [00:16:29]:
And the link to join us is here in the show notes of this episode. Also in the show notes is a link to buy me a coffee. So if you are loving this podcast and you appreciate it and you want to share your appreciation with me, I am eternally grateful. It does take a little bit of overhead to run this podcast. There is some monthly bills and it does take about 2 hours of my time every week since I research, record it, upload it, edit it, with a little help from AI. So if you would like to support the podcast, you can quote buy me a coffee, which the link is also in the show notes for that. Okay, so back to the astrology. We had the final Mercury Square Uranus.

Veronica Perretti [00:17:16]:
We had the sun opposite Saturn. That was also part of that heaviness last week, one story that came out of all of that, you know, sun opposite Saturn, illuminates the reality. And you may or may not have heard about the story of the russian company that is paying these podcasters that are talking about a lot of very far right things on about, you know, the candidates, the election, politics, etcetera, and spreading a lot of disinformation. I had previously mentioned that we have Jupiter and Gemini this year. Jupiter and Gemini amplifies the many sides of a story. It also can amplify untruths, you know, so the spread of misinformation and disinformation is rampant this year, not only because of the election, but also because we have election in a year with Jupiter and Gemini. Jupiter amplifies things. Gemini amplitude is all about information and lots of different stories or lots of different versions of the truth.

Veronica Perretti [00:18:28]:
The highest vibration of that is someone who can see something from all perspectives and take in everyone's perspective and stay objective. That's the highest vibration of Gemini. The lowest vibration of Gemini is proliferating disinformation. Right. Or knowingly saying one thing and then saying something else and etcetera. So, being crafty with the words is a gift of Gemini. So all of that is to say that Jupiter in Gemini is amplifying that. Jupiter, of course, squared Saturn a few weeks ago.

Veronica Perretti [00:19:10]:
We talked about that a few weeks ago. So we're seeing all this information come out about where these radical podcasts are getting their information, or more importantly, who's funding them. And that money is coming from Russia, and that is with the intention of spreading disinformation about the election. Okay, so that is last week, and that's way more than I wanted to talk about last week. Now, we get into this week, we get into the good stuff. There is a lot of good stuff this week, and it is not a lot of transits, but the transits that we have are fortunate and ferdal. So Mercury moved into Virgo today, on Monday, as I'm recording this, which I'm so happy about, because Mercury is not only in a sign that he rules, but it's in a sign where he is exalted, which just means that he's really powerful and really happy. So, Mercury in Virgo.

Veronica Perretti [00:20:10]:
It is delightful to have Mercury in Virgo. It's really helpful if you need your mind to be sharpen. So if there's something like you need to do your bills, you need to do some finances, you have a creative project, anything that you need your mind to be really sharp for you want to maximize this time. With Mercury in Virgo, Mercury will leave its shadow, as I mentioned, on Thursday. So what's really nice is we're also coming back to a sense of clarity and an ability to be a little bit more decisive. Mercury is also going to sextile Mars on Wednesday. So sextiles are when two planets are working together, so they're different, but that means they bring complementary skills to the project. So mercury and Mars working together is great, because when mercury and Mars are sextiling, they know how to get stuff done.

Veronica Perretti [00:21:10]:
Mercury, again, is in Virgo, which is an earth sign. Mars is in cancer, which is a water sign. Earth and water is fertile. You water the soil and the plants grow. So Wednesday is going to be a great day to sit down and get some stuff done. If you need something that you need motivation and focus for, Wednesday is the day. That's the September 11. And then we have the sun Square Jupiter on the 12th.

Veronica Perretti [00:21:39]:
On Thursday, the day that, I believe the second half of Emily in Paris is dropping on Netflix. So you know what? I'll be doing Thursday night. But all of that is sun, sun, square Jupiter. Perfect for Emily in Paris. Because while squares can be tough, the sun Square Jupiter is probably the best. You know, any square root of Jupiter is probably, you know, the best square you can get. Right? Sun in Virgo. It is detail oriented.

Veronica Perretti [00:22:08]:
Jupiter in Gemini. Jupiter, not a detail oriented guy, but he's more interested in the details when he's in Gemini. These two in a square. While a square can be friction, this can also create an opportunity to make some shifts and be adaptable, because these planets are immutable signs. Mutable signs encourage us to be flexible, be adaptable. There is a lot of mutable energy in the sky this week or, in general, the past few weeks. So if you feel like things are going one direction and then another direction, and you just can't quite feel like you know exactly where you're going, that could be that mutable energy. And we're learning to be adaptable.

Veronica Perretti [00:22:57]:
We're learning to be flexible. That's part of the purpose of that mutable energy. So sun Square Jupiter is going to be optimistic about how we can adapt. Being excited, embracing the energy of change, embracing being in the flow. That's what that's going to help us do on Thursday and throughout the week. Now, we also have some lovely aspects. On Sunday, we have Venus, Trine, Jupiter. So Venus and Jupiter are the two benefics in the sky.

Veronica Perretti [00:23:27]:
They're the planets that we're most happy to see touch our chart when they touch our chart. So this is a flowing connection. Trines help us. Trines are blessings that we have to lean into so they're not going to pound down our door and make themselves known. But since we know because you're listening to this podcast, since we know on Sunday the 15th, Venus is going to try on Jupiter. Venus being in Libra sign that she is the ruler of Jupiter, being in a fellow air sign of Gemini, this is flowing connections. So Sunday this weekend, even into next week, it's going to be great for connecting with people, talking to friends, making new friends, striking up some small talk when you go to the gym or get your nails done or at the grocery store, wherever you go, whatever's in your neighborhood. Gemini also rules the neighborhood.

Veronica Perretti [00:24:24]:
Being open to connection, being open to conversation. Really wonderful night. If you Saturday the 14th, great date night. Great time to go out with your partner and just conversation is going to flow. Great night to go out with your friends. Conversation is going to flow. There's going to be a feeling of just wanting to embrace ease and joy and embracing the pleasures of life, basically. Okay, so that is on Sunday.

Veronica Perretti [00:24:54]:
We also have a grand air trine on Sunday the 15th, which basically means that while Venus and Jupiter are in a trine, the moon in Aquarius will also trine those guys. So the three of them are be creating a big triangle in the sky, which means that that energy that I just talked about, that ease of connection, that ease of conversation is going to really be amplified. We will also have Mars squaring the nodes on Sunday, so that one a little more intense than the rest of the things we talked about for this week. But Mars Square of the nodes, it's taking action, a choice that you make. So you might notice that you're putting some things into action that maybe you've been thinking about for a while. You might notice that things are moving and changing and taking shape, whether or not you're actually making the choices, because this Mars square of the nodes is happening right as we're entering that first eclipse of eclipse season. So just pay attention over the weekend and into next week. So we're talking September 14, 15th, 16th.

Veronica Perretti [00:26:21]:
What is being chosen for you? What choices are you being asked to make? And notice if those choices are going to be important down the line. They might be cosmic course correctors. Just as I mentioned, eclipse season brings in those cosmic course correctors. So just notice where you're being asked to choose and where things are being chosen. For you. And if those things are creating a new path forward or pushing you down a path that you're already on, because Mars wearing the nodes is always going to be about moving forward. It's always going to be about how do we move forward, how do we motivate, how do we get going, how do we rev our engine? What gets us from point a to point b. Mars is a forward looking guy.

Veronica Perretti [00:27:24]:
Of course, he's in cancer, so he's a little passive aggressive. Mars in cancer is known for being passive aggressive. Listen, Mars is the planet of aggression, of war, of anger, of frustration, but also of motivation and drive and sex and using our muscles and so many wonderful things that are part of being human and some of the glories of being human. Mars in cancer is still going to be aggressive, but in a passive way. He's not going to be like Mars in Aries where he pounds down the door and says, hey, guys, here he's going to hold back a little bit. So all of that is to say, just pay attention around this weekend where you're making choices and perhaps where choices are being made for you. And if you don't want choices being made for you, you have to pay attention to that and take action. So that's basically, that's what I was trying to say, what I was trying to get to.

Veronica Perretti [00:28:25]:
That's what I got for you this weekend. I know it was a longer episode than I anticipated, but that was because I want to talk about last week and I hope that that wasn't too boring for you. Again, I think astrology is so valuable when we reflect even more so than when we predict going forward. I think it's even more useful when we look back. So I thought that was important to do. I hope that you are having a wonderful transitional period. Virgo season is this period of transition from summer to fall. And I know that it can be a little bit stressful and all this mutable energy can make us feel like we're not quite settled, but we're learning about change and that's what this season is about.

Veronica Perretti [00:29:14]:
It's about embracing change and finding the excitement in the change, finding the magic, the details. You know, Virgo is, to me, Virgo is finding the magic in the details. This time of year, almost every day, the earth is changing a little bit. You get those shifts in the temperature, you get that little chill, you get a few more leaves are turning orange. I mean, at least where I live, I live in the northeast, so it's a little bit easier to tell here, but energetically, you're experiencing that, too. You know, we're all experiencing those shifts as we move from summer to fall. And the more we are in our bodies, connected with our breath, showing up to our practice, showing up to whatever practice makes you feel a sense of connectedness to yourself, you're going to be more available to pay attention to the shifts and the change and be open and available to riding the shifts and the change and making those choices when opportunities arise. Rest up.

Veronica Perretti [00:30:30]:
Take care of yourself this week. Use this good energy to your benefit to really take care of yourself and prepare because the eclipses are coming. All right, bye.